Figgate Park

ESOC local event in Edinburgh and the Lothians

Sat 16th Mar 2019

Type of event: Local
Near: City of Edinburgh

Results are here.

ORGANISER'S COMMENTS: It was touch and go whether to cancel this event due to the weather warnings; but I'm glad we didn't! Once you get out into the sleety rain, three degrees above freezing, it's really not that bad, as evidenced by the large number of first-timers who tried it and had a great time. The sheltered park, with an urban option on the Green Course, catered well for everyone. There were wildlife bonuses in sightings of otters and nesting swans. Local people, and Parkrunners too, came to try out this new activity in the Figgate Park, and experienced orienteers enjoyed the urban option outside the park.
Grateful thanks to all club helpers, including the many Juniors, who battled with frozen fingers to do all the jobs, and to the competitors who made it all worthwhile.
Janet Clark

EVENT STILL ON. Figgate Park is low lying, quite near the coast, and not affected by snow. Attractive city park which provides good orienteering for beginners and improvers but there will also be something for experienced orienteers.

ESOC Sprint O, incorporating 2019 Scottish Sprint Championships and bto SOUL 2

Uphall and Broxburn

Sun 03rd Feb 2019

Type of event: Regional, Sprint
Near: Uphall & Broxburn

Here are the results

Here are winsplits for race 1

Here are winsplits for race 2

The list of Scottish Sprint Champions 2019 is here

BTO SOUL Urban league standings are here

The courses are now on our routegadget here.

PHOTOS of the events from Steve Rush

PLANNER’S COMMENTS: Roger Scrutton writes - This was the first time I had planned a major sprint race, but I've enjoyed running them for several years and had a feel for what was needed. Uphall, north and south, presented a challenge for classic sprint because of significant areas of urban as opposed to sprint terrain, so the focus was on route-choice legs - which wasn't lost on participants. King George's Field provided a nice space too good to miss for finishes adjacent to the event centre, even though it necessitated the timed out crossing at the busy main road in the afternoon race. Winning times more or less met the requirements and, in the morning at least, would have been a little shorter with better underfoot conditions. On several occasions it was mentioned that early February is not the best time of year for a sprint championships. However, my impression is that everyone enjoyed their courses, and that is very gratifying.

Many thanks to Trina for some very effective controlling and to Anne and her team for organising a very friendly event.

ORGANISER’S COMMENTS: Anne Hoy writes - Saw blood, sweat but no tears. It was great to have a good turn out at Uphall for the Scottish Sprint Champs and Urban races. Seemed like lots of happy customers for Roger's courses, with a few personal frustrations! It was excellent to have the community centre as a base, with warmth, coffee and cakes (thanks to the World Schools team) making the event very sociable, despite the weather. The event even attracted a few locals to the local event in the afternoon.

Thank you to West Lothian Council who let us have the hall and parking and particularly to Audrey who was incredibly helpful with setting up the event and calm when she saw the floors afterwards (we did try and sweep them). Lastly, a big thank you to the ESOC team of volunteers who made the event run incredibly smoothly.

Lost property picked up at the end of the day:

Glasses

Compass

Adidas white t shirt

Dogtag ski mittens

Contact to get them back

This major event incorporates the 2019 Scottish Sprint Championships and the bto Scottish Urban Orienteering League (SOUL) 2. We have also designed a special course for local people to come and try orienteering. Uphall and Broxburn locals click here for more information. FINAL DETAILS and START TIMES are now available for the MAIN EVENT. Read on for links.

Cammo Estate

ESOC local event in Edinburgh and the Lothians

Sat 12th Jan 2019

Type of event: Local
Near: Edinburgh

Results are here

Winsplits are here

ORGANISER’S COMMENTS from Leonne Hutchinson: It was wonderful to see so many people at Cammo. It is a lovely estate and the weather was ideal for a New Year’s outing. I’m glad the wee drizzle mid-way didn’t amount to anything. It was a shame on arrival to find a window had been broken at the lodge and much rubbish left in the ruined house but both were quickly sorted by our volunteers.

Cammo is often a popular event, and today was no exception. There were 197 entries on the day, with many family groups and newcomers, as well as experienced orienteers. It did lead to a busy registration and subsequent wait for dibbers to be returned. I was impressed with everyone’s patience and understanding, maybe aided by ginger biscuits and cake. Thank you to those who loaned their own dibbers to save people waiting, even their SIACs.

The team of helpers worked calmly and efficiently in getting everyone out to enjoy Peter’s courses. It is always rewarding when people return from their courses having enjoyed themselves and with positive comments for the sport and for the team that worked so hard to make it happen. A special shout out to the juniors that helped today - Rowan and Tom at the starts, Joseph and Ben on the computers, and Senan, who helped put up the signs.

PLANNER'S COMMENTS from Peter O'Hara: I hadn’t planned an Orienteering course for more than 25 years. Back then I used little fiddly metal rings and got covered in ink. Condes software was great fun to learn and pretty user friendly I felt. Really had fun playing around with different course designs.

Cammo was a challenge at times to plan for, particularly because of dog walkers causing the rapid evolution of the paths, my initial draft courses were changed after some ‘ground truthing’ and head scratching, so I avoided some of the more confusing areas. Vegetation boundaries were also avoided as control sites, partly because of it being Winter and looking very different, but also things have move on in places compared to the map. Katy provided key comments on early drafts to help me revise some rather silly proposed control sites in dangerous ruins etc. as well as sorting out many design flaws and mistakes.

One suggestion I got from a beginner whilst planning the course was not to cover up the map key with the control descriptions as had happened in a previous event they had been to, something we do have to be careful about with beginners who find some O symbols baffling to begin with. When this happens competitors can usually get a copy of (or get a look at a copy of) a map legend at Registration.

For the Green as well as trying to get the length up with not too much repetition, I tried my best to make it as challenging as possible in a very familiar area/control sites for many, by making most controls only visible when you were inside the circle, trying to disorient through rapid twists and turns, and provided as many route dilemmas as possible, including trying to use the out of bounds fields as an obstacle. This was only partially successful, I noticed a few foot prints across the soil by the end [��] , thankfully no one tried ‘route one’ through the canal. Although a few will have to wash their shoes after going for it through the swampy ditch. Sorry for that….there was always the option of the long way round.
Orange used many similar controls to the Green, but coming in from a more visible angle. I worried some sites may be tricky for beginners, but also a good way to hook beginners by giving them a bit of a challenge. My wife Monette certainly got her money’s worth on her 90 minute run on the Orange, some of it spent entirely off the map.
I think the Yellow was possibly too short and possibly a bigger step down from the Orange than desirable. Thankfully Katy advised me to make the Yellow and White quite different in case those that ran the White wanted to do the Yellow also, good advice.

The White and particularly Yellow I probably found the least fun to plan, my instinct was to try to get kids to have forest adventures and get muddy, but the guidelines said paths only.

I really enjoyed the experience of planning, learnt a lot, would recommend it to others to try and definitely up for it again in the future if there ever is a need. Thanks especially to Katy for the wise mentoring and to Janet for gently keeping me on track in preparation milestones and also very impressed by the well-oiled machine of so many dedicated ESOC volunteers, calm under pressure on the day. Apologies that us Peebles outliers don’t do more.

Super area for newcomers and a training opportunity for experienced orienteers.

Dalkeith Park, SoSOL

ESOC Event in the South of Scotland Orienteering League (SoSOL)

Sun 18th Nov 2018

Type of event: Regional
Near: Dalkeith

Provisional results are here.

Winsplits are available here

Routegadget now available

LOST PROPERTY: 1 green windproof jacket (left at start); 1 pink and brown woolly hat; 1 pair of glasses. Contact Peter Halling: .

PLANNER'S COMMENTS: Thank you to everyone to came to Dalkeith Country Park. What a stunning day – I wish I could claim credit for planning the weather!

Planning at Dalkeith has its challenges. The river is a major constraint and can only be crossed at 2 bridges. During the planning we also expected the access road from the King’s Gate to be open and reasonably busy, and we were also asked to keep runners off the steep banks around the start. I also wanted to avoid crossing most of the fields as they usually contain livestock.

We decided to keep the junior courses east of the river to avoid crossing the impressive Montagu bridge. To get suitable junior courses there were really only 2 possible start/ finish locations – and it’s always nice to finish near a café! I also wanted the senior courses to finish through the Old Oakwood as it’s the nicest part of the park. So the start had to be in the rather fine amphitheatre below Dalkeith Palace. The constraints made the start a little tricky and obviously caught out a few competitors who hadn’t quickly spotted the need to run under the bridge, and immediately turn back up the path to the road. I should probably have cut the start triangle, but I think most folk spotted the route.

Unfortunately the area isn’t especially complicated for skilled orienteers, but it has a few features and is ideal for junior courses. The western area has very little contour detail and some very subtle (i.e. small) features. I tried to set legs that cut across paths at right angles to give some challenge. Unfortunately I couldn’t avoid the dead run to north east of them map. There are one or two possible mapped features in the valley, but it’s very unpleasant underfoot. Apologies if you were confused by all of the extra holly bushes just before the river crossing. I convinced myself that the control was on a reasonable thicket and the right distance from the distinctive rides, and I tried to hang it clearly.

The old oakwood is an SSSI with some M/W900 trees and a beautiful example of a managed forest. It’s not very complicated, but there are a few features around the edges and those on the longer courses had 2-3 loops here. I apologise for the second holly encounter at 218 (must be that time of year). The map isn’t quite right here but I thought the feature was good enough and visibility was good once through the holly barrier.

We had the inevitable discussion about SIAC and waking controls and decided that there wouldn’t be enough time to guarantee waking all of them on the morning of the event. This seems reasonable for a Level C forest event but if you feel differently please let me know as we will consider it as part of the SOA review of event standards

Finally thanks to Julie Merrilees and Stephen Begg from Dalkeith Country Park for their help and flexibility (especially making sure there weren’t any cattle in the Old Oakwood fields). To Sheila for keeping me straight! And to the control collectors who made my and Sheila’s jobs very easy at the end of the day. With a special mention for Margaret & Les for going out again in the gloom to collect the last 2 controls that I forgot!

Thank you to everyone who came along to this event. It was such a beautiful sunny day showing off the park at its Winter best.

Holyrood Park

ESOC local event in Edinburgh and the Lothians

Sat 13th Oct 2018

Type of event: Local
Near: City of Edinburgh

EVENT WAS POSTPONED due to Yellow Weather Warning for heavy rain throughout Saturday. Read more for a fuller explanation.

Ward Junior Home International Relays

A closed event for junior teams from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Sun 07th Oct 2018

Type of event: National
Near: Pitlochry

Here are the relay results.

The results for all of the JHI races over the weekend are here

The relay points are here

The overall points for the weekend are here

Routegadget for the relay courses grouped together

Routegadget for the separate courses womens courses are the lower versions

Here are some PHOTOS from the JHI weekend, they were taken by Scott Bailey. Many thanks to Scott for these.

MORE PHOTOS, this time from Will Heap. Thanks for these Will.

Thank you to everyone for coming to the JHI Relays today. We hope you enjoyed our Scottish terrain and our hospitality. Highland Perthshire did us proud with the autumnal display of colour. Even the dreaded bracken looked beautiful with colours ranging from yellow through to dark orange. A bit of blue sky and sunshine would have enhanced the colours but in the end the weather was quite kind with the rain keeping off until after the prizegiving.

Safe journey home and Haste ye Back to Scotland

Margaret Dalgleish (Organiser)